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jolt/docs/spec/README.md
Yogthos 33eff7c7d8 Clean up codebase: rename stdlib layer, strip porting residue, fix tooling 
Rename src/jolt -> stdlib (the runtime-loaded layer; jolt-core stays the
seed-baked layer) and update the loader / emit-image / doc paths. Drop dead
code: the spike/ experiments, the duplicate clojuredocs-export.edn (json moves
to tools/), the Janet-era jolt.http binding, and the orphaned
persistent_vector.clj whose ns/path didn't even match.

Strip porting residue from comments and docstrings across host/chez, jolt-core,
stdlib, tests, and docs: internal issue ids, "Phase N" markers, and the "vs
Janet" historical exposition, leaving present-tense descriptions and the real
JVM-Clojure semantic contrasts. Same pass over the corpus suite labels. The seed
is unchanged (docstrings/comments aren't emitted), so the self-host fixpoint and
corpus are untouched.

Port tools/spec_coverage.py off the dead janet probe to bin/joltc and regenerate
coverage.md; drop the dead :host/janet rule from certify.clj and regenerate the
conformance profile. Add docs/host-interop.md (the JVM shims and how to register
your own host class from a library) and a writing-style note in CLAUDE.md.

Stabilize the four racy concurrency corpus cases (future-cancel and agent
send/send-off): give the future a sleeping body and the agent a slow action, so
cancel reliably catches an in-flight future and deref reliably reads the
pre-update snapshot. They certify deterministically now, so drop their :flaky
allowlist entries and the orphaned legend.
2026-06-22 22:18:00 -04:00

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The Clojure Language Specification (Draft)

A normative, implementation-independent specification of the Clojure language, developed alongside jolt's self-hosted compiler and validated by its executable conformance suites. Why: Clojure has no spec — every alternative implementation re-derives semantics from the reference implementation and folklore. See the RFC for motivation, scope, evidence sources, and process: ../rfc/0001-language-specification.md.

Documents

Doc Content Status
00-front-matter.md conformance terms, entry format, host classification drafted
02-reader.md token grammar + reader-macro catalog drafted
01, 04–08 see chapter plan in front matter planned
03-special-forms.md special-form catalog + normative exemplars (if, let*) exemplars
09-core-library.md per-var entry format + exemplars (first, reduce, parse-uuid) exemplars
coverage.md generated dashboard over the 694-var surface generated
../grammar.ebnf reader surface syntax (EBNF), companion to 02-reader.md reference

Regenerate the dashboard after surface changes: python3 tools/spec_coverage.py (reads tools/clojuredocs-export.json and probes a working jolt checkout via bin/joltc).

Current numbers (2026-06-22)

Of the 694 clojure.core vars in the ClojureDocs inventory, jolt interns 574. Broadly:

  • 568 implemented in jolt and exercised by the behavioral suites
  • 6 implemented but not directly tested — each gets a test with its spec entry
  • 6 portable but absent from jolt's resolvable surface (the REPL history vars *1/*2/*3/*e, plus letfn/re-groups, which work but aren't interned where resolve can see them) — tracked as gaps
  • the rest classified host/JVM/concurrency (see the dashboard for the full per-var breakdown — it is the source of truth)

How this connects to the test suites

  • test/chez/corpus.edn — the host-neutral behavioral corpus, one row per case ({:suite :label :expected :actual}). The Chez compiler evaluates each case via host/chez/run-corpus.ss (run with make corpus), and test/conformance/certify.clj certifies every :expected against reference JVM Clojure (run with make certify). Spec entries cite these cases.
  • test/conformance/ — the certification tooling and classified divergences (certify.clj, known-divergences.edn); see its README.md and SPEC.md.
  • vendor/clojure-test-suite — the cross-dialect suite (≥4081 assertions passing); dialect splits there are classification evidence.
  • jank's per-construct corpus (~/src/jank/compiler+runtime/test/jank) is the granularity model for §2/§3 conformance.

The invariant: every numbered normative statement names its conformance test, or is marked UNVERIFIED. The spec cannot drift from the implementations that check it.